Located on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mono County and Inyo County California is a remote rugged area settled by miners, merchants, traveling photographers, newspaper men, farmers, and ranchers. These pages cover the genealogy, biography and history of the pioneers who lived here anytime between 1840 and 1900.

On the List of Pioneers you just may discover a link to your family, someone who wandered west, even if only for a few weeks, and then returned home.

Much of this information is from my 25+ years of research on this area, but more is being contributed by other researchers and descendants of these rugged folk.

Do you have an ancestor who left, say Missouri, for the Gold Rush and never returned? Did your ancestral family then develop a resentment about California? Mine did. California 'stole' relatives who never returned. My eastern relatives thought California had nothing but sinful, wild, gold-digging people who knew nothing of settling down to stable hard work.

To this day, I find people who vehemently deny that any of their ancestors could possibly have wandered to California. They simply will not even entertain the possibility and, thereby cut off a possible source of information about an ancestor who was simply adventurous and could have actually done quite well in California.

Wander these pages - check the List of Pioneers, read a Biography or two, learn how to hunt for ancestors among the mining books in county recorder's offices, visit the two counties, find out where you can take your dog for a walk, and enjoy photos and films of this beautiful region.